Bell and money

Gardner Selby of the AAS:

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Chris Bell had only $10,741 in campaign cash on hand through June — but that doesn't mean he wasn't raising money.

Bell collected nearly $150,000 the first half of the year.

He spent nearly $94,000 of that on three consultants, including close to $50,000 on a professional fundraiser from Houston.

Discouraging?

Bell spokesman Jason Stanford said he doesn't think so.

"We don't spend five seconds worrying about how much we're spending. The problem is we're raising too little; we're going to do what we have to do to raise a lot of money."

Bell's campaign sends $100 a month to the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, which describes itself as the nation's largest gay and lesbian organization. Bell started the expenditures to honor a friend who asked him to contribute to the rights campaign as he battled AIDS, Stanford said.

I can't imagine very many people would want to contribute to a campaign that doesn't worry about what it is spending. Campaigns that aren't worrying about costs usually have one of two qualities: they're self-funded by the candidate or they lose.

Maybe it's just me, but the fact that Bell sends CAMPAIGN money rather than personal money to honor a friend seems like a poor attitude on behalf of the campaign towards the money it raises.

Posted by Evan @ 08/07/05 11:55 PM

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